Act 11 “Ignorance”

Changmin was a happy teenage boy that had a genius-mind; he’s very thankful for that so he could finish his studies faster and got scholarship. He wouldn’t need to bother his parent too much anymore and he would be able to work and give them money every month; he wanted to be able to replay his parents for the love they had showered him ever since he’s a baby.

His childhood was nice, bright to be exact. He was born in family with adequate economy. When he was five, he got a cute little sister that he loved so much. He was so close with them but when he moved away for his studies; things changed.

He wasn’t necessary so busy, he just felt so free. At home, he had to act like a good son and a good big brother but here, he’s alone. He’s an independent individual and most of the people around him respected and adored him for being so perfect in public. No, Changmin wasn’t perfect, he had many weaknesses. He just hid it so well.

Did you know this genius boy used to watch almost every night? And did you know he rarely contacted his family with a reason he was busy? He was a selfish teenage boy that wanted freedom for himself; he thought talking to people was wasting of time. Human only made relationship with other because they needed them to survive; they couldn’t live alone; they wanted advantages from others. Changmin believed such philosophy. Besides, no one ever truly understood how his mind worked; blame the genius curse and gift.

Yet, after he met an oncologist named Jaejoong, he learnt about love. How fun it’s to make relationship with people. Jaejoong reminded him of his mother as Yunho reminded him of his father. Junsu and Yoochun reminded him how important it’s to have friends. They made him realized he was wrong; he was selfish; he was a fool. Since then, he started to contact his family more.

Changmin loved Jaejoong, Yunho, Yoochun, and Junsu like his own family. He wanted to protect them and that’s why he tried to learn as much as he could about the monster so he could assist them better. He tried to make most of the report so the others could have more time to rest. He really tried his best, but, what if it’s not enough?

He was weak; he couldn’t fight as well as Yunho and Jaejoong even though they had trained together for few months. Yoochun and Junsu even fought better than him now. His strength was big but maybe fighting wasn’t really his things; he preferred to be on desk supporting the others from the background. But what now? Changmin had failed; he let the enemy got him so no one could support his friends anymore. He shouldn’t let his guard down; he was a fool.

“You’re the reason for all of this. You fool! You’re the one started all of this!”

A voice echoed inside Changmin’s sub consciousness, disturbing his self-thoughts. Changmin tried to get his eyes opened and he did, just to see divine darkness enveloped him. He thought he was dead but he was wrong as suddenly his head hurt so badly. He screamed, calling for help, but no one came. Only him, his darkness, his pain, and his rapid heartbeat as thousand of images attacked his sanity.

---

“You shouldn’t be here, Prince; the king has declared this is a restricted place,” a voice interrupted his slumber. He opened his eyes and spotted two palace guards in front of him. Muttering a curse, he got up and eventually passed the guards.

He heard the guards spoke about his ill manner but he could care less. He just bored with all these luxurious things. He used to adore the king, his father, at least before the king went mad after losing his wife, who’s his beloved mother.

“Prince Sunjong,” a servant bowed to him,” Your father, King Gojong is looking for you.”

Sunjong nodded as he walked to the king’s chamber. He was told the king would wait for him at the restricted place. It was weird. His father never ever let anyone got near to that place, where he just took a nap and eventually shooed by the guards. He spoke to the guards and finally gained access inside. It looked like stone cave but he realized it was clay as he touched the surface. He knew his father was making some secret room in the palace garden since the queen’s death. He was curious how the cave looked so familiar.

His father told him he conducted experiment to develop medicine here, so no one would suffer from the unknown sickness that killed their beloved queen. Sunjong also knew the King Gojong, his father, took many corpses from the kingdom here for experiment. No, the king didn’t say it directly to his son’s face but he just got his own resources. In fact, the news the queen died of sickness was a lie. His mother, Queen Min also known as Empress Myeongseong was dead, killed by Japan assassin. It’s because she was smart to suspect Japan plan to conquer Korea. It was a murder.

He reached the end of the tunnel and made it to a big square room with some pillars. To his horror, he spotted few stone beds with living patients on them. He knew all of them were supposed to be dead. How could they be alive when Sunjong was sure he saw their corpse when his father’s private guard took them here? Moreover, their eyes were empty and cold; like they’re soulless dolls. Some torched light his way in his confusion. He eventually reached an altar in the middle and walked up the stairs. His father was waiting for him there.

“Son, look at this…I finally managed to bring her back…”

Sunjong looked into the content of the stone tomb in front of him and screamed in horror. His mother, the queen, was smiling to him as she got up and caressed his cheek. No, this couldn’t be happening, Sunjong screamed inside his head. He managed to see some carving on the tomb shone a bit as his mother figure got out from it. Sunjong was confused but happy to see his mother again.

Then, suddenly, everything turned into nightmare. The queen went mad and attacked the king, the other patients also did the same. Sunjong screamed as he ran as fast as he could. He managed to get out and sealed the door behind him before any of the undead walked out.

“Such a fool, to think he can bring the dead one back to life…” a voice startled him. Sunjong spotted his father’s shaman beside him. It was the person who made his father obsessed to bring his mother back to life, Sunjong knew it.

“It’s all your fault!!!” Sunjong tried to cut the shaman with his sword but he could only hurt the air. Because of the futile attack, Sunjong let the door opened as the undead stormed out from the cave. Sunjong screamed as he was bitten and hurt, dying as his sight blurred.

“You let them out…Then, let your entire beloved folk dance with the undead!!!” the shaman laughed like mad old man as he vanished into the thin air, leaving the undead killing everyone of the kingdom. All they knew, the kingdom people vanished the next morning into the thin air and no one ever knew what happened.

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“You’re the reason for all of this, Sunjong ah…” the old man grasped Changmin’s hair as he continued,” You’re so ignorance, didn’t want to realize how sad your stupid father, King Gojong, was…Or should I call him by his name now after the reincarnation? Yes, yes, he’s called Jung Yunho now…”

“Please…stop…” Changmin was crying so bad as he tried to grasp for anything as weapon, yet, he was too weak. He could only muttered incoherent words as the shaman’s laugh echoed inside the big iron trunk in the middle of the forest. Changmin’s head hurt a lot like it had been hit by a truck but his heart ached more; it felt like he was tortured to death by the memories that just planted to his head; the memories of his previous life.

“Do you know how many decades I waited to finally meet the five of you again? Now, I can have my revenge! Hahahahaha, especially to that holy fool bishop that sealed me for ages!!!” the old man screamed,” It’s a hard time, to be alone in that prison. I eventually got my power back little by little…Then, I started to spread the curse, or you called it now, the virus…”

“I found Yunho first of course; he was just an innocent child back there. I started by tearing his family and turning his entire beloved one into the undead. It was fantastic, you should have seen it!” the shaman laughed again.

“Then, I searched for that holy fool bishop! His fate wasn’t as good as Yunho at all. He deserved it, no, he deserved more than that! I would skin him alive and fed him to my beautiful undead creation; he would suffer from eternal flame of hell!!!”

Changmin almost lost his sight; he got no idea who the shaman meant by ‘bishop’. He felt so weak and his body began to betray him again. He closed his heavy eyes as the shaman dragged him out, into the storm, making him freezing. The coldness pierced his skin and he wanted to scream but he couldn’t. He felt his whole world spun around as he lost his consciousness.

---

Yoochun shot his guns and kicked the zombies till the head blew away; it was tiring psychically but he couldn’t afford himself to get bitten anymore. He had enough of being bitten and useless once. Meanwhile, Junsu tried to use his bullets wisely too; he chopped the head off mostly with his sword but used his guns when he was outnumbered. It was like zombies ocean out there.

Both of them kept counting the zombies they killed, it almost reached a hundred, but the zombies didn’t seem to be lessened at all. Suddenly, Junsu was pushed and fell on his . He was off guard when a huge zombie almost stepped on him; luckily Yoochun managed to pull him away.

“Ready?” Yoochun gave the signal as Junsu nodded. Yoochun used all his strength to throw Junsu away into the monster’s direction. Junsu shot the monster few times on the head, getting full attention, as Yoochun cut the monster’s throat from the other side. They got up, leaving as soon as they could and rushed deeper into the forest. They’re almost there, they knew it.

“Junsu, can you get Changmin?” Yoochun asked after his failed attempt to contact Changmin.

“I can’t get Changmin at all,” Junsu spoke as Yoochun cursed and they blew another zombies’ head. They kept marching forward with a blink map, contained only Jaejoong’s and Yunho’s blinking tracking device. They passed few big trees as the monster still after them.

“Look!” Yoochun pointed to a cave-like entrance,” They must be there---Arrggg!!!”

“Chunnie, what’s wro---Uurrrggg!!!” Junsu collapsed on the ground, next to Yoochun. Both of them were panting hard as their body betrayed them. Their cells felt dead as they couldn’t move it at all. Blurry, they could hear the hoarse scream that after them approaching. Their head felt like exploding.

“Chunnie…Scared…” Junsu muttered before he completely lost his consciousness. Yoochun wanted to reply but he couldn’t. He forced his body to move and he managed to get up and take Junsu. His muscles hurt like hell as he forced them to move but he could care less. He rushed and hid behind a huge root of trees. He crawled below the root and made sure the zombies wouldn’t find them as he covered the entrance with leaves; the storm would make the monsters couldn’t smell them as good as they should be.

Suddenly, Yoochun felt tremendous pain attacked his sanity as he screamed and his sight blurred too. He felt so cold as the storm froze them up. The zombies’ scream came closer and closer as Yoochun cursed himself for screaming before; but the pain was just too much.

He used his last strength to secure Junsu inside his arms before bunch of images attacked his head. The last thing he could hear was the hoarse voice that was right next to him and then everything went quiet. It was too quiet and dark. It was like the whole world didn’t exist. None of them existed; he hoped he would wake up and found out everything was just a nightmare. It was the only delusional explanation he could think of at that moment.